From Makaras to Manticores...Around India in 100 Mythical Creatures

I stumbled upon C.G. Salamander's From Makaras to Manticores much like the author repeatedly stumbled upon the journal of one Thomas Iruvathoor—titled Field Explorations of Mythical Beasts Across India.

I’m not ‘Myth Aunty’ for nothing…books like this call to me. This one, with its striking cover by Sheena Deviah, first caught my eye when I picked it off the shelf for the school library. Since then, it has leaped out at me on numerous occasions, ensuring that I borrowed it and tucked it into my book bag to read over the summer. 

And what a read it’s been. 

The author cleverly distances himself as he ‘shares’ Thomas’s journal, chronicling an obsession with mythical creatures from across India. 

To say I was fascinated with this book would be an understatement.

I was rather awestruck by the writing and how seamlessly Salamander has woven together facts, folklore, legends, and historical accounts, the writings of travellers, saints, and wisemen, and even cross-cultural connections in Joseph Campbell fashion. With sprinklings of clever, often self-deprecating humour,  a few drops of fear and suspense, and an undercurrent of contemporary commentary, the writer keeps you hooked. There’s power in how he links myth to modern issues—women defying patriarchy, stories likely shaped by caste dynamics, and made me question whether mythological similarities across cultures arose from shared storytelling or cultural appropriation.

This is brilliant writing; the epistolary style only serves to deepen its appeal. The illustrations, book design, and production only elevate Salamander’s already exemplary writing. I can’t imagine the illustrator having many pictorial references from which to draw. What I often tell my students as I narrate stories from mythology is that all these stories were passed down orally, so the pictures we see are what some artist imagined them to be. I love Sheena’s take.  

This is one of those gems in #indiankidlit . 

Author: C.G.Salamander

Illustrator: Sheena Deviah

Publisher: Hachette India

Connecting some of the creatures to those in Katherine Rundell's Impossible Creatures